a77impala

I was in Fairhope AL in Feb. went into a Audio/book store and scored a few albums but what I noticed was what the owner was making. He
was taking old cardboard suitcases and mounting speakers in them, complete with RCA plugs. They would be great for outdoor use.
If in Fairhope look him up "Over the Transom" was the name.
He also had several turntables for sale along with lots of vinyl.

Grand Bois

I've gotten too lazy to deal with my vinyl, but I have three Grace Digital WIFI tuners in the house. I also have five tape decks, four reel to reel and one cassette. I think I may be addicted to them. I buy them broken to repair and sell, but then I can't let go of them.

Cambridge Soundworks used to sell a complete stereo in a suitcase.

gaucho777 

I never imagined this thread would get to 21 pages!

bigbossman 

501 replies, and over 11,500 views. Who'd have thunk it.

I'm rebuilding a thrift shop Phase Linear 400 as we speak. Sound good, and is all original. I'm going to make it even better.

The Golden Boy 

I'm half heartedly looking for another set of speakers.

Since my last entry here, I've acquired a Sansui 9090DB- I'm pushing my main speakers with that amp and using the line out to the AUX of the Pioneer SX838 to push a small set of Infinity speakers. It sounds really nice, but I'd like to add another set for the Pioneer to push.

The Golden Boy 

It's a Gibson GA-80.

https://www.chambonino.com/work/gibson/gib7.html





Sweet amp.

It's cool seeing an amp like that; in the state it's in- when Fender's Blackface stuff got cool- the owner painted over the tweed to make it look more "modern" and cool.

The old Gibson amps are the cat's pajamas. The GA-79 is the big daddy as far as the tweed-y amps, it looked all cool with the "V" front.





(man, why did I not buy that one for $500 in 1991 at Big Music?)

I have a 1962 Gibson Falcon (GA-19RVT) that's probably my most played amp- sweet, sweet, amp.





A friend had a early/mid 70s checkerboard Marshall 4x12 that had the grillecloth spraypainted black- to match the JCM stuff after 1981. Yes, it's kind of a dopey move- but it sort of makes sense in the context of the time. My 65 Jazz Bass used to be Fiesta Red- on New Year's Day in 1972, the owner stripped the paint off and did a really bad walnut stain with brushed on lacquer. Yes, it's looked horrible for 40 years- but it's cool in that it looks all "1972" with the walnut stain.

But Fiesta Red would've been cooler.

BigPolishJimmy

Thanks for the info Dave,

Ha, guess I'm wrong. I only went 4 pages deep in google before I had to go do something else. I did find a nice site with lots of old Gibson amplifier info: https://u87306159.pwww.webhosting.telia.com/?page_id=116 and the site owner kindly informed me that my amp is a Gibson GA-80T "VARI-TONE" amp made from 1959 to 1961.

I also think I found a schematic for it at: https://www.schematicx.com/

Thanks again, I appreciate all the help

BTW, your Falcon looks pretty awesome. What size speaker is that in there? I'm wondering how this 15-inch is going to sound with my guitar. There's significant difference between the sound of a 10" and 12" speaker, with the 12" having a healthy bass response. I'm wondering if the 15 is going to be tight enough in the highs, or too boomy in the bass for my style of playing?


Jim

The Golden Boy 

Hey Jim-

The Falcon has a 12.

I used to have one of the Valco made Silvertones with (pretty much) a Bassman head pushing a single Jensen 15. It was completely not my thing... at that time. You've got a really cool amp. It looks like yours is somewhere in the same neighborhood as that- but built way better- probably around 45w- probably nice and clean up to about 5 and then "hair" until a little after 6 then it gets squashy- although the 15 will probably tame that. Just a guess.

For me, I think I'm a little better able to appreciate an amp that isn't an overgained Marshall than I was when I was 25. Hell, I usually keep the Pre on my Marshall at 6 these days. I'd keep in mind what that amp was probably designed for- running an ES-345/355 into it and playing Barney Kessel stuff. You'll probably get some cool rock tones- but don't expect it to be what it isn't. You've got a cool new voice!

If it REALLY doesn't trip your trigger, you might be able to replace the baffle, make a new one with a 12 or if it's big enough do a couple of tens...

Keep that original Jensen though...

BigPolishJimmy

I used to play my Gibson Explorer through a Peavey 1/2 half stack back in the day \m/ Rock \m/ . These days I play a Korean-made Fender squire Telecaster and run stereo amps from my Zoom G2. I only use distortion on one song in the current band and that sounds like a farty angry hornet, mainly I play a shoegaze style swirly wall of sound that washes over you in waves while pensive undercurrents play about your ankles and slowly suck you in deeper.

In other words I'm after a pristine clean tone with room to breath. The current band is just a 4-piece (frontman, bass, drums, and me on guitar), I don't have to compete with a 2nd guitarist anymore, so I don't have to play at as loud a volume. It's nice to be playing at a reasonable volume. I use a lot of delays, chorus, reverb, and plain straight clean sounds. Distortion and/or overdrive are not in the mix and unimportant. If they were I'd be rocking the 1/2 stack. The single coils on the tele have amazing range in sound from deliciously creamy to bright and beautiful. Ten years ago I'd have never thought I'd switch over to the dark side (fender guitars). My Gibson could do Blues, Rock, Metal, Punk, and Grunge, why switch? But the thing is I'm having a great adventure in a world of new tones and playing has become new again.

Six jours

"If you do away with the traditions of the past, then you must first replace them with something of value" ~ old African proverb, at least according to Robert Ruark. I find that to be absolutely true, in just about any field I can think of - but cycling most especially. And I write that as the old vinyl spins away in my living room...

Poguemahone

Every now and then I get a nice shock. Twenty three albums at a local Goodwill in pristine shape. Mostly white blues, Clapton, Canned Heat, Peter Green Era Fleetwood Mac, Ry Cooder, Delaney and Bonnie, Yardbirds, Derek and the Dominos, the Band Last Waltz, plus Pete Shelley and the Gang of Four. Real beauties. Oddly, I had told myself I would buy the Delaney and Bonnie lps at a local store, for about what the entire pile cost me.

This may be eclipsed by a bike find. Stay tuned.

thinktubes 

A dood walked out a thrift right in front of me with a $9.99 AR-XA turntable. Missed it by this much....

(stock photo)

Chombi

Yeah, old stuff seems to work forever and do a better job than the new gizmos, but what upsets me are the not so old things that went quickly into obsolecense like my Compaq Ipaq 7680(?) "Pocket computer" It's been plugged into it's base since I stopped using it many years ago as it was made redundant by my phones and notebook computers.......Now it's still there in my bedroom shelves on it's cradle with it's charging light still on, but pretty much just a fancy paperweight that I don't have the heart to throw away as it cost me a lot of money when I got it.
Maybe I'll consider finally pulling it out of its cradle for good tonight and put it in its box that I kept for all these years so it can die a peaceful death under my bed with all sorts of other obscelecent things I have from the past.....
Now I'm wondering when the portable Sirius S50 satellite radio I plug in my car will eventually have no satellite signals to receive and end up next to my Ipaq.....under the bed......

Chombi

ilikebikes

Same here!

Grand Bois

No vintage system is complete without a reel to reel deck.

TireLever-07

Grand Bois, Henry Kloss died in the 00- decade. He was Advent KLH and Cambridge Sound Works, was in malls with the Bose stores, he almost made it to the Apple Store era. Remember Edwin Land? his celebrity product introductions were big news here. Massachusetts was a company town for many innovation(S). Charette just folded , the Woburn building is for sale.I was last in there 4 years ago.Great topic thread everybody,I recall reading the first, 5+ pages, but I always get lost here. Chris

Grand Bois

wtf?

The Golden Boy 

Here's my setup as it is right now- the Sansui is pushing the Bose 301s and 501s and the line out of the Sansui is going into the AUX input of the Pioneer, which is driving the Infinity bookshelf speakers.

rat fink

New audio news!

I just found out that I'm moving to significantly smaller/less permanent digs soon and will have to sell most everything, so I've been in a mad rush to condense my last 15 or so years of gear hoarding into a very minimal set of possessions, like that you might be able to keep in a ~500 sq ft apartment with no garage. So, it stands to reason I'm going obscenely minimal on my gear-dense hobbies.

Last week, I sold some real nice stuff: a Kenwood amp/tuner, Cerwin Vega, Mtx, Sony, Kenwood, and Polk speakers, a Pioneer receiver, a Pioneer Cassette, Technics Garrard, and Realistic turntables, and some cartridges. Now, I just have: Rogersound Labs, Kenwood, Polk, Allen, Bic, Hollywood Sound, and some lower lever speaker sets, a Yamaha preamp, a Sony R-2-R (maybe?), some SS monoblocks, a tube monoblock, some SS and tube radios, a tube tester, all my extra tubes, and a lot of cables.


The good news, (aside from making some good money off of all this), is that I got some better speakers lately. What do you all think?




Anyway, this is what I'm planning on keeping:

System one: Pioneer SX-1280 receiver, Pioneer PL-530 turntable w/ Shure R47xt cartridge, and Allen HC-10 loudspeakers

System two: Sony TA-5650 integrated amp, Yamaha P-500 turntable w/ Shure M97xe cartridge, and Tannoy Oxford speakers

I wanted to keep my Sony TC-530 reel to reel, but I'd rather get something with three or four heads down the line and restore it. What do you guys think of those setups?

rat fink

Oh, also I'm only keeping three bikes.

bikemore 

My place is 550 sq feet and I get use of the basement . Build up! Shelves to the ceiling, just not over the bed.

bigbossman 

Using speakers as speaker stands......

Good choices on System #1, except I'm not familiar with the Allen's. The two Pioneer units are solid picks, and I'm jealous of the receiver.

Not familiar with System #2, but the Shure cartridge is another solid performer. I've got one of those, too.

bigbossman 

NKOTB, an ADCOM pre-amp that I had in the closet, and a Phase Linear 400 amp that I fished out of Salvation Army around about 1992 or so.

Just recapped the ADCOM, and just finished a partial rebuild with a few upgrades on the PL400. They sound pretty sweet together.

The unit on the bottom is a Sansui AU-317II integrated amplifier that a local BF member gifted to me about a year or so ago. It had blown outputs and needed a complete overhaul, but it is a pretty sweet sounding unit in its own right.

lotek 

I got an AR XA for $25. need to rewire the tone arm as the left output is intermittent. Thinking I might
replace the original tone arm with something, not sure what yet, but I can tell ya it won't be an
SME3009 or similar.

Marty

rat fink

Sweet system, man! I passed on a Phase Linear something or other about a year ago for $10. It sucked to do that, but life goes on.

The Allens are solid performers. Far more transparent than anything else I've had and probably the first speaker that was a real match for the SX-1280. Here's a pic of them with the grilles removed:



The photos don't show it too well, but they are a good size: 35x18x20. Acoustically, they require a lot of breathing room, or else they painful a high levels. They have so much sensitivity that they really show it when you have a bad pressing or an inferior stylus. It's all worth it though, when you put on a London recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, a good copy of Bizet's Carmen, Tomita's greatest hits, Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack for Super Fly, Faith by George Michael, and many more.

On system #2: The Sony TA-5650 is a real joy. It has V-Fet technology, which has been said to have the most 'tubey' sound of solid state tech. I don't know for sure, but it does sound absolutely wonderful. The P-500 tt is actually spec'd slightly better than the PL-530, and might have a better arm, but it's not built as nice. The Tannoys are the most pleasant sounding speakers I've owned, and are surprisingly capable as well

For the most part, the two systems are about equal, but system #1 has more raw power.